The forbidding cold and white ice of the arctic sea was gone and instead this place was brilliantly green and blue. He tread water with his head poking out of the water and saw ice carved into buildings around the outer edge of this gigantic chamber. There was a narrow walkway around the edge of the huge ‘pool’ he was in and he immediately realized these buildings and the walkway were for humanoids like him. Yet, these buildings and the walkway were only a very small part of this huge structure. The pool of water that dominated this place was like a huge lake and it contained a sort of undersea city and was filled with the flora and fauna of the seafloor similar to what Sage had seen back in Deep Shore. The underwater buildings and structures seemed optimized for use by the many whales and dolphins that made up the bulk of this city's population.
It truly was a city, but this one wasn’t built for humanoids. At the same time it also had a large open air area within it as well as what must be some sort of sophisticated system to draw in fresh air. These cetaceans were undersea creatures but were also air breathers, which made for a very different type of city than others he’d seen. Of course, the high level Demonic Beasts, just like Cultivators, had methods to go without breathing for long periods of time if not just forgoing it altogether, but perhaps this city was like human ones and contained ‘mortal’ or Spirit Animal whales.
It was pretty amazing to see a whole city of dolphins, whales, and porpoise like Demonic Beasts. More impressive to see was that they weren’t all separated along racial lines like the Killer Crew and Whale Sword Sect he’d met so far. He passed by a few structures that named themselves ‘Sects’ which consisted of vastly different beings practicing what seemed to be similar Qi techniques. While it was interesting to see diversity, he was actually more surprised by Demonic Beasts practicing Cultivation type techniques. He’d heard of this being something reserved for the Ancestral Memories of the most powerful bloodlines of beasts, but had never really run into them himself.
The Whale Sword Sect members took him to an official looking building carved out of ice in the shape of a large pagoda. Unlike most of the other buildings here it wasn’t covered in kelp and anemones, but left as bare ice.
“Welcome to the Great Pod! Please come this way for your registration.”
Sage was greeted by a sort of dolphin-like creature as large as a medium sized dog. It had a flattened blunt nose and dark stripes down its body. It reminded Sage of the Vaquita of Earth, yet it had a sort of tiger-striped pattern. It spoke with a sort of high pitched voice and ushered him over to what seemed to be a large glowing stone. He swam in front of the stone and it released a bright light. Once the light washed over him the small lady nodded her little dolphin-ish head and then swam over to another stone.
“Great, now come over here and you will receive your identification. You can put that, what was it called? Oh yeah, hand. Put your hand next to it.”
He looked at the stone protrusion and chose to extend his arm so his bicep was in front of the end of the stone. Without knowing what it was, he didn’t want to have anything interfere with his hands and an injury to the upper arm was likely the most superficial. Once he was in position, the stone lit up like the first and he felt a warmth on his upper arm. Then just like that it was finished. The small cetacean had a little smile on its face, “There we go. All done. Let’s just give it a little test.”
The tiny striped dolphin released a little song, one with that unusualness to it like at the city entrance. When she did, Sage felt his arm vibrate and a similar song echoed forth from a glowing brand. The mark released a sort of song of its own and then faded away once more. The lady attendant as well as the member of the Whale Sword Sect that was still following him were both pleased.
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“Perfect! Now you can come and go from the city as you like. Have a nice day!”
They left the icy building and met up with a few others from the Whale Sword Sect that were floating idle outside.
“You’re now free to move about the Great Pod as you like, but please allow us to treat you to a meal tonight. We would not feel right if we let a new arrival wander without guidance.”
Sage accepted, as he figured he could gather more information from them before heading out to explore this new city on his own. He asked them about the Transportation Formations and they told him that since the Great Pod was not stationary, the Transportation Formations would not work. That was also when he learned that this giant floating ice whale was not just a city, but a mobile city. They didn’t tell him about the specifics of how it moved, but they did give him a sort of ‘schedule’ of where it usually migrated to so he could find it again in the future. Sage wasn’t planning on staying that long, but it was still important information nonetheless.
The Whale Sword Sect had a large structure near the tail of the giant ice whale and he also learned there was a second entrance tunnel, or perhaps he should call it exit tunnel as it was placed near the tail of the huge city whale. The Whale Sword Sect was mostly made up of the silvery coated Narwhal with sword tusks, but there were a few notable exceptions. He saw some smaller dolphins that wielded a sword between their teeth with a strange grip to accommodate their mouths. There were some whales with helmets that had a sort of bit system to secure it to their heads. More surprising was that there were a handful of humanoids who had swords mounted to helmets and a few others that worked as Weapon Refiners to build their unusual equipment.
Unsurprisingly, these non-narwhal members of the Whale Sword Sect were even more upright and righteous than the narwhal were. Sage had figured it was the sort of place that would attract the most overbearing do-gooders around and he seemed to be mostly correct. They were quite well liked by the citizens of the city they passed by, at least for the most part. There were some gruff and scarred cetaceans that gave them what he would describe as a dirty look, but he couldn’t be completely sure. These cetaceans didn’t have humanoid faces after all, so they weren’t as easy to read as humans were, at least not for him.
The Whale Sword Sect invited him into their dining hall, where it seemed each night they held a sort of miniature feast. It wasn’t overly elaborate, but they served many dishes and the hundreds of disciples sat at long tables and ate together. It reminded him of eating at school when he was young in a large cafeteria full of people, just with a higher quality of food and with a much lower volume of chatter. These sect disciples weren’t silent, but they had much better control over their voices and much better hearing to pick out the sounds they wished to from among the large crowd.
Sage got a few of them to warm to his presence and he finally got some answers to a few questions about this city. Firstly, he learned that these cetaceans had a sort of power similar to his Heart’s Tongue in their whale song. He wasn’t the only one who could talk to them so easily as their songs allowed them to converse with most cultivators they ran into. Second, the unusual songs at the entrance and also coming from his arm were not just songs. They were actually images. They explained to him that they could hear songs with the same depth and resolution as a human could see an image. The richness of tone and timing were just as expressive as color and shape for them. The special songs were an enhanced version of those songs, in comparison to normal songs it would be like a movie or maybe even a three dimensional projection instead of just simple images.
Afterwards, one of the disciples escorted him to the shoreline and directed him to one of the humanoid inns that had a good relationship with their sect for him to get a place to stay.